When Jesse had driven two miles east on State Road 7, he turned left onto the two track that zigged in gentle curves up Tanner’s Hill, and on into the cut between Tanner’s Hill and a swell of BLM land.

He drove slow, looking about him and, in the mirror, back into the broad valley he had crossed to ascend into the wide ravine, the valley behind him now a depressed green sprawl. The canyon road was soon winding through a labyrinth of trees and still climbing when big raindrops began to splash on the truck’s windshield and thumped on its roof.

The sky remained a long blanket of high gray clouds, and Jesse threw his truck into low gear to weave along the winding road. He pulled a stick of Wintergreen gum out from among the coins, washers, screws and matches in the truck’s ashtray and unwrapped it quickly with just his stick hand and fed it into his mouth, his eyes fixed on the path before him.

The ascending path opened out of the ravine onto a straight clip that headed across an unkempt meadow. The road then began an easy descent in the open, but entered the woods where two stands met. Above breaks in the treeline, Jesse could see the jagged ridge line above Mercer’s Slot- a high, barren reach of angular gray stone that sat stoically above the sea of treetops, and provided a pass from Tanner’s on through a wall of rock into Raven’s Valley and a short approach to Gilliam Falls- one of Jesse’s favorite places to go when he wanted to take a brief break from it all and sit and rest.

Jesse guided the truck along the familiar trail down through the trees until he had to turn sharply and climb on a sea of gravel up into the rocky wedge of the pass. The raindrops shrank, but the rainfall intensified.

“Hang on, girl- we’re going up and over”, Jesse muttered out loud as he gave the truck some gas in the slick incline.

The vehicle lurched and slid on the rocks several times, like it was climbing on patches of gray and brown icicles, before it leveled out on top of the saddle connecting the valleys.

Jesse stopped the truck for a moment and leaned over and picked up the cookie tin which had listed at an odd angle on the towel when the truck hopped up the slope.

He placed it on the seat next to him and while the rain gently danced on the dome of the cab, he opened it, and lifted out the turtle.

Ruby sat retracted stone-like for a long while while he held her up, until she finally popped her head forward and he little legs fell and flailed.

The rain pitter-pattered on the truck as it sat and mumbled as Jesse put Ruby back into the tin and set it evenly on the towel on the floor in front of the passenger’s seat.

Jesse then put the truck in gear and rolled forward, descending again into the ravine and Raven’s Valley.